Lasagna Fazzoletti al Pesto

This is a reprise of sorts.  In my earlier post I made a Chicken Fazzoletti Lasagna.  This dish is vegetarian, with Pesto sauce and cheese.

 Fazzoletti, or face towels, are my pasta of choice if making from scratch.  Quick, easy and just yummy. The bomb in fact.  They make you look really competent.  And after all, what working woman has time to make innumerable fussy little pasta shapes.

As I advised myself in that earlier post, this time I first cut the dough in half before cutting again into four.  I am cooking for two people here, so ignore if you need more pasta.  Also as noted earlier, I rolled the dough much thinner this time around, the secret to a successful result.  And, doing it in a more relaxed way, by starting early.  If you want to watch Chef Laboa making the pesto and pasta, it will be more involved, but a fun watch.  He uses a mortar and pestle for the pesto, I go for the food processor.

Pesto with Pasta

 Just in case you, as I have a tendency to do, think shopping in your very favorite Natural Foods store is, or should be a foolproof experience, forget it already.  No one here is owning up to who actually bought the cheese in question.  It was either him or I.  But, in any case, shouldn't have been in that place at all.  Here are the rules, according to the if-it-looks-like-a-duck theory (if you'll hang in there with my rant):

1. If it looks like orange processed cheese,
2. If it tastes like processed cheese,
3. It resists mold beautifully,
4. It will stay in a tidy little square when heated,
Guess what, it is processed cheese.  Duh. So much for that.  Do what you will with it.  Maybe you love processed cheese.  In that case, my apologies.

I have gone over these salient facts with the employees of said store, with a request for proper labeling.  This was labeled "Smoked Sharp Cheddar."  And, do you know what I was told?  No, you don't.  So, I'll tell you.  That cheese is our very best seller!  Yes, folks, true, which fact, you would scarcely believe from checking out the customers here.  Perhaps we're dealing with a throwback to childhoods in less enlightened times.  The flavors of mommy's kitchen?  Comfort food?  End of rant.

You have heard about a picture being worth a 1000 words, right?  Well, this little video says it all about the perfect Pesto and the perfect Pasta. Just watch Chef Paolo Laboa prepare both, you'll see what I mean.  So, that was my goal this week.  To do both, perfectly.

All that aside, this very (seemingly) simple pasta dish was quite lovely.  And, I made the pasta twice, improving on my technique and getting the dough thinner.  Next time will be even better, I'm sure.  It was not all that difficult.  There are good video instructions here on rolling the dough out, which the above mentioned chef neglects to completely show us.  Plus, I can see that this will make lasagna a more feasible operation in future  (for me anyway).  Look for it next week.

So, the first thing to do is to make your favorite Pesto.  Having a nice bunch of CSA kale, as well as a bunch of basil, I made a combination Kale Basil Pesto.